Saturday’s Game Report: Cardinals 3, Giants 2
By Rob Rains
Jordan Walker finally got a chance to smile on Saturday night.
It has been a largely frustrating season for Walker, especially lately, as he was mired in an 0-of-25 stretch when he came up to bat in the ninth inning against the Giants at Busch Stadium.
After being shut out on just three hits through the first eight innings, the Cardinals had a rally going. They loaded the bases on singles by Nolan Gorman and Masyn Winn and on a hit batter, Jimmy Crooks, before Thomas Saggese’s single cut the Giants lead to 2-1.
That brought Walker, hitless in his first three at-bats, to the plate with the bases still loaded. On the first pitch, he lined a shot just past third baseman Matt Chapman that drove in the tying and winning runs and gave the Cardinals the walk-off victory.
It was the first walk-off hit of Walker’s career and the two runs that scored on the double matched his total from his previous 35 at-bats combined.
The ninth inning rally was only the second time the Cardinals scored three runs in the ninth inning since Aug. 4 and gave the Cardinals their sixth walk-off win of the season.
Here is how Saturday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander shut out the Cardinals on three hits through the first six innings. Lars Nootbaar led off the first with a single and the other hits were fifth-inning singles by Victor Scott II and Jose Fermin. Verlander did not walk a batter and struck out six … Fermin walked in the eighth but was stranded … Gorman had struck out in all three of his previous at-bats before starting the rally in the ninth.
On the mound: Andre Pallante was better than he had been in recent starts, allowing two runs over six innings but was in line for the loss before the Cardinals’ rally. Both Giants runs scored in the fourth, when they got three of their five hits off Pallante and a sacrifice fly … Kyle Leahy pitched around two hits in his two scoreless innings and Riley O’Brien worked a perfect ninth with a strikeout to earn the victory.
Key stat: This was only the second win of the season for the Cardinals in a game they were losing after the eighth inning. Before Saturday night they had been 1-63 when losing after the eighth.
Worth noting: Lefthander Liam Doyle, the fifth overall pick in this year’s draft, made his professional debut by working 1 2/3 innings for Class A Palm Beach. The only hit he allowed was a home run and he walked two and struck out three, throwing 42 pitches in Palm Beach’s 3-2 win over Daytona … The Springfield Cardinals, headed to the playoffs, won their 11th game in a row.
Up next: Sonny Gray will get the start in the series finale against the Giants at 1:15 p.m. on Sunday.
